


Worth It

by sophia_sol



Category: Swindon Town Swoodilypoopers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-15
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 15:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophia_sol/pseuds/sophia_sol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now John visits his husband every day at the hospital, talks to him, kisses him, holds his hand, and worries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god what is this even. HELP. John Green said there was slash fiction out there for Bald John Green/Other John Green, but I couldn't find any, so I had to write it myself, because it needs to exist. THEIR LOVE CANNOT BE DENIED.

When John saw his husband go down on the field, it didn't feel like time stopped. Time rushed happily onward, and John was left standing in its wake, shocked, worried. They'd both been injured before, of course; that was to be expected when playing professional sports. But John knew in an instant that this was something different. John knew his husband well, could read him easily. They'd been best friends for so long, and married now for two years, and the lines of his body and the expression on his face screamed at John that this was not okay.

Now John visits his husband every day at the hospital, talks to him, kisses him, holds his hand, and worries. His knee is badly injured, and though he was rushed into surgery, complete recovery is not a guarantee. Physical therapy is slow going, and hard work, and painful. John wishes he could take some of the agony away and bear it himself.

It helps when John can share stories about the latest victories of the Swoodilypoopers. They both care so deeply for the team, feel so strongly about it, and even though John knows his husband longs to be out playing, it's clearly a relief to him to know that the Swoodilypoopers are still going strong without him.

"I love you," John tells him every day when he has to leave.

It's awful to go home to an empty house.

What's even more awful is how he must hide his feelings. Being openly gay as a sports star is hard; John knows only of one, a rugby player. John and John would be put into the public's eye if they were to come out, he knows. Gay married footballers! On the same team as each other, no less! The press would hound them, people would say nasty things about them. It would not be fun.

It's because of this that they have kept their relationship hidden for years, hidden even from their team. But John is starting to wonder whether it's all worth it, when he has to go to practice and pretend everything's okay, pretend he hasn't left himself behind in the hospital.

All the Swoodilypoopers are disheartened, of course, because Bald John Green is admired and loved by the whole team, but it's nothing to how John feels.

"I was wondering," John says one day in the hospital," and then stops.

"Wondering?" his husband says.

"Whether it wouldn't be better after all if we -- if --"

John can't quite get the words out, but his husband, as always, understands. Sometimes it feels like the two of them can read each other's minds; it's part of why they're so good together on the field. And off it.

"If we came out," his husband finishes, and John sighs.

"Yeah."

"It would be --"

"-- hard, I know. But our team would --"

"-- support us."

"Of course they would."

The Swoodilypoopers are the best team that either of them has ever been on, and they know their teammates truly care.

"But --" John says.

"-- Yeah."

And they look at each other in contemplative silence.

"Yeah, okay," John says, and almost laughs when he realizes his husband is saying the same thing.

"It's worth it," his husband says.

"It is," says John. He stands up. "Okay," he says. "I love you."

"Love you too."

And John leaves the hospital and drives to practice with a spark in his eye and resolve in his mind and love surrounding him. It will be worth it.


End file.
